History glossary
the Treaty of Nanking
the 1842 treaty that ended the First Opium War and opened the first treaty-port system.
- Category
- Treaty
- Region
- China
- Date range
- 1842
What it means
The Treaty of Nanking ended the First Opium War in 1842. It opened Canton, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai to British trade, required Qing China to pay indemnities and ceded Hong Kong to Britain. The settlement became an early model for the unequal treaties that limited Qing control over foreign relations.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Opium Wars
From the Canton System to the fall of Beijing, the Opium Wars turned illegal trade, imperial power and Qing weakness into a new unequal treaty order.
The Qing Dynasty
From Manchu conquest to republican revolution, the Qing dynasty built China's largest empire, oversaw centuries of prosperity, and then struggled to survive foreign intervention, rebellion, and the collapse of imperial legitimacy.
